Thursday, April 17, 2008

Elsevier has announced that it will be launching some improvements to its ScienceDirect service [http://www.sciencedirect.com/], which provides access to the publisher’s STM full-text journals and ebooks. The changes will include navigational improvements in screen layout, four options for filtering existing search results, and access to article comments, ratings, and social bookmarking options supplied by Elsevier’s free 2collab service [http://www.2collab.com/].

[snip]

The new navigational improvements include preview tabs on the results page and the table of contents that let searchers quickly view article abstracts, figures and graphs, and reference citations. No longer do searchers need to reload a page for each article that catches their interest. When viewing a full-text article, a toolbox feature lets searchers quickly click to key functions: Cited By, Download PDF, E-mail Article, etc.

[snip]

An "inline" reference preview shows links to referenced articles as the cursor passes over them in the body of the article. If available and authorized, the links can take the searcher directly to the referenced paper. No longer do searchers have to go to the bottom of an article to reach the citations. Sidi pointed out that searchers can reach non-Elsevier content through link resolvers. They can also now view the number of times articles were cited in Scopus, which includes citations for the articles it covers as well as the abstracts.

[snip]

In November 2007, Elsevier launched an online collaboration platform called 2collab. (For details, see Paula Hane’s NewsLink Spotlight, "Elsevier Creates Social Spaces for Researchers," [http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleId=40102]. Even on Sept. 17, 2007, during the beta phase, a 2collab product developer announced that one of the project’s first goals was "integration with other Elsevier applications—such as ScienceDirect, Scopus. … For example, on ScienceDirect we would like to display the comments, ratings, and tags posted by 2collab users for relevant articles."

The addition of social bookmarking for articles and opening discussions on ratings and tags added by researchers is still scheduled for "a phased release over the coming months," according to the upgrade announcement. When completed, each article page will carry comments, ratings, and tags added by readers. The services supplied by 2collab already exist in Scopus. They allow both private (invitation only) and public groups.

[snip]

Barbara Quint is contributing editor for NewsBreaks, editor-in-chief of Searcher, and a columnist for Information Today.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - April 15, 2008The Internet2 K20 Initiative today announced that it has launched a brand new social networking site called Muse [http://k20.internet2.edu/]

which seeks to significantly enhance collaboration, information-sharing and technology opportunities for the over 50,000 K-12 schools, community colleges, libraries and museums in 38 U.S.states that are now connected to the Internet2 backbone network. The site is also expected to provide a better bridge between the U.S. K20 community and its international counterparts worldwide. Within the short time sincel aunching, the new site has already experienced significant uptake within the community.

"The Internet2 K20 community has traditionally embraced advanced technology to facilitate new opportunities for students at all levels to experience a richer environment for teaching and learning. The development of a social networking web resource is a natural progression for our community which has long sought more efficient ways to share experiences, ideas,resources, projects and collaborations across geographic boundaries," said Louis Fox, Director, Internet2 K20 Initiative and Associate Vice President, University of Washington. "We have experienced strong use since the site has gone live and expect its adoption to continue especially as functionality enabling deeper collaboration is added. In the future, we see Muse as a potentiallyhelpful resource for the greater Internet2 community to enhance project collaborations on a global scale and facilitate cross-disciplinaryengagement."

Muse was developed by University of Washington student web programmers under the leadership of James Werle, Associate Director, Internet2 K20 Initiative,University of Washington, and Jennifer Oxenford, Associate Director, MAGPI. The site expands upon the core code of Drupal, an open source content management platform, and provides many of the Web 2.0 features found in popular social networking sites. Practitioners from the broad K20 community can set up individual andinstitutional profiles, describe projects, share resources, and create direct connections with their peers both regionally, nationally and internationally. The site also allows online communities to be created and scoped to a specific geographic area. This feature is geared for groups of organizations looking to share resources just within their immediate region while still participating in the global Muse community

[snip]

While the site continues to rapidly expand in use, Muse plans to introduce the ability for users to create topically-based communities, chat in real time about projects and interests, receive email "Museletters" tailored to those specific interests and provide RSS feeds to broadcast information on new users, projects and organizations as the site grows. In doing so, the site intends to provide the community the ability to develop stronger, more comprehensive collaboration groups and to promote the more rapid adoption of advanced networking applications among this unique set of Internet2 users.

Muse builds on the success of the nationwide Internet2 K20 Initiative in bringing together Internet2 member institutions and innovators from primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, libraries and museums to extend new technologies, applications and advanced content to alleducational sectors across the country.

To bring innovators in K-12, community colleges, universities, libraries, and museums into appropriate regional, national, and international advanced networking efforts, via the "Sponsored Education Group Participant" (SEGP) process.

To encourage and help sustain partnerships among these education institutions, the private sector, and government.

To enhance teaching and learning by facilitating projects that explore the ways in which advanced network applications, services, tools, and digital content can extend access to education and educational resources.

To develop mechanisms for timely communication across all educational sectors and regions in order to enable quick, pervasive technology diffusion.

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About Me

I formerly had primary responsibilities for Collection Development, Instruction, and Reference and Research Services in Chemical and Biological Engineering; Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering; Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering; and Mechanical Engineering; Alternative Energy; Environment Sciences with the Library of Iowa State University. I was employed from April 1987 to July 2014.
Prior to joining ISU, I served as the Museum Librarian at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, and as an Assistant Librarian with the Library of the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, my hometown.
I received my Master of Science degree in Library Science from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign in 1975, and my undergraduate degree in Anthropology from Lehman College of the City University of New York, The Bronx.